If you want to bring a parent to live with you in Spain, the first thing to settle is which set of rules applies to your case, because there are two different ones and they are not interchangeable. If the person already living in Spain is a foreign national with a residence authorisation, the route is family reunification under the Immigration Regulation. If the person in Spain is a Spanish or EU citizen, a different regime applies and the conditions below are not the ones you should be reading. Getting this wrong is the single most common reason a parent’s file is prepared for months and then does not fit the route it was filed under.
Bring your family to Barcelona
The reunification application at the Oficina de Extranjería and your family’s consulate file.
450 € + VAT with one family member, 100 € + VAT for each additional one.
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The rule that decides everything: who is the sponsor
Family reunification is defined in Article 65 of Royal Decree 1155/2024, the regulation implementing Organic Law 4/2000, in force since 20 May 2025. It covers the situation of a foreign national authorised to reside in Spain because a foreign resident exercised the right to family reunification. That wording matters: the sponsor is a foreign resident. If your parent is joining a Spanish citizen, look instead at the regime for family members of Spanish citizens, which has its own requirements and its own paperwork.
Parents are the hardest family member to reunify, and the text says why
Article 66.1 lists who can be reunified. Spouses, registered or stable partners and children have their own conditions. First-degree ascendants, which is the legal way of saying your parents or your partner’s parents, appear in letter e) with three conditions that must hold at the same time:
- they are dependent on the sponsor (the text says a su cargo);
- they are over sixty-five years old;
- there are reasons that justify the need to authorise their residence in Spain.
The same letter allows an exception: ascendants under sixty-five may be reunified where humanitarian reasons apply. That is an exception assessed case by case, not a second ordinary route, and it is not something to assume before filing.
Compare that with a spouse or a child, where age and dependency are not part of the test. This is why a parent’s file usually stands or falls on evidence, not on forms.
For a spouse, partner or children, our family reunification visa service runs the sponsor’s application in Barcelona and the family’s consulate file.
What the sponsor has to prove
Article 67 sets the sponsor’s requirements. Two of them decide most cases:
| Requirement | What the regulation says |
|---|---|
| Economic means | Fixed and regular resources for the sponsor’s own maintenance and that of the family: 150 % of the IPREM for a household made up of the sponsor plus one reunified relative, and 50 % of the IPREM for each additional member. |
| Health insurance | Article 67.3 requires health insurance for the sponsor and for the family members listed in Article 66, not only for the person arriving. |
The percentages are set in the regulation, but the IPREM itself is a reference figure updated each year, so check the amount in force on the date you file rather than reusing a figure from an older guide. If you are still deciding what kind of policy satisfies the file, our guide to health insurance for residency in Spain covers what the requirement actually asks for.
A detail that surprises most families: reunified parents are not automatically allowed to work
Article 65.2 says the residence authorisation obtained through family reunification allows the spouse, the registered partner and the reunified child to work, employed or self-employed, anywhere in Spain and in any occupation or sector, without any administrative step, provided they are above the minimum working age.
That list does not include ascendants. So a parent reunified under letter e) should not plan on the basis that the card will carry the same automatic work access that a reunified spouse gets. If working is part of the plan, that has to be looked at separately before filing, not afterwards.
How to prepare the file so the evidence matches the test
- Confirm the regime first. Spanish or EU citizen in Spain, or foreign resident? Everything below changes with the answer.
- Document dependency, do not assert it. Regular transfers over time, and evidence of the parent’s own situation in the country of origin, carry more weight than a declaration.
- Prepare the reasons justifying the need. Health, absence of other family support, and how the situation changed are the substance of letter e).
- Check the means against the household size you will actually have, using the percentages above and the IPREM in force.
- Arrange insurance covering sponsor and family, as Article 67.3 requires, before the appointment rather than after.
- Get foreign documents ready early. Civil-status and dependency evidence issued abroad usually needs legalisation or apostille and a sworn translation, and that step has its own waiting time.
Where these files usually go wrong
- Using the family-of-a-Spanish-citizen checklist for a foreign resident’s file, or the reverse.
- Treating the age condition as flexible. Under sixty-five is the exception, and it needs humanitarian grounds.
- Proving income for today rather than fixed and regular resources, which is what the text asks for.
- Insuring only the parent, when the requirement covers the sponsor and the family.
- Assuming the parent will be able to work on arrival.
Where this fits with the rest of your residence planning
If your own authorisation is still being renewed or modified, that comes first: reunification is exercised by a resident, so the sponsor’s own situation has to be solid. Our residency applications service covers that side, and if your family situation might fit a different route altogether, the comparison in arraigo familiar versus family residence is a useful second read before you commit to one.
Official sources
- Royal Decree 1155/2024, of 19 November — consolidated text of the Immigration Regulation (Articles 65, 66 and 67).
- Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration — procedure information sheets.
Percentages, ages and conditions above are taken from the regulation in force at the time of writing. Reference amounts such as the IPREM, fees and processing times are updated periodically, so confirm the ones in force before you file.
Thinking about bringing a parent to Barcelona? Tell us who is the sponsor and what the parent’s situation is, and we will tell you which route fits before you start collecting documents. Talk to Barcelona Expat.
